Communicate Like a Leader

CHAPTER 33

Plug Power Into Your Agenda

It isn’t that they can’t see the solution. It is that they can’t see the problem.

—G. K. CHESTERTON, 20TH-CENTURY ENGLISH WRITER, PHILOSOPHER, AND THEOLOGIAN

Let’s start with the idea that you need an agenda—and not simply the topics in the meeting leader’s head. For those who use an agenda regularly, great. Next step: Make it functional.

The typical agenda for business meetings sounds as appealing to attendees as a bottle of lukewarm water to sunbathers on a hot summer day at the beach. While the topics listed may be routine, they’re rarely functional, engaging, or energizing. For example, a typical agenda for a staff meeting might look like this:

Weekly Status Updates

Headquarters News

Product Updates ...